As of February 2018, METRICAL now covers more than 1,800 companies, having increased its scope from 500 companies. Our research now covers all TSE 1st section companies that have a market capitalization greater than Yen 10 Billion, which is to say almost all TSE1 companies. METRICAL has analyzed the corporate governance of Japanese companies for three years, using 10 criteria and more than 20 sub-criteria. The analysis focuses on both board practices as well as the corporate actions that should be closely affected by CG practice and should ultimately improve financial performance of companies.
This link to our report on our research results shows the interesting (changing) landscape for CG in Japan.
http://www.metrical.co.jp/mwbhpwp/wp-content/uploads/CG_Score_Distribution_201802.pdf
Our previous research of 500 companies had not hinted as clearly, but expanding to broader coverage showed that Japan’s CG improvement is moving forward steadily even if it is slower than hoped. Although we have tried to look for significant correlation between board practices and performance criteria, so far we have found essentially none. However, there is significant correlation between our action criteria and performance, and the analysis also shows significant positive correlation between board practices and those actions. We expect that in many cases better board practices encourage boards to take appropriate actions over time, leading to to better performance indirectly. Please see further research on our home page.
We would like to thank BDTI for its cooperation with regard to this research. Please feel free to contact us at the email address below if any interest or query.
Aki Matsumoto, CFA
Executive Director, Metrical Inc.